SLIDER

Phillip's Birth Story

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

I don't know about you but I'm one of
those people who loves reading/hearing others' birth stories! So I'm
sharing Phillip's birth story here...with all the details! Be forewarned
it might be long but I don't want to leave anything out so I can always
remember.

So we'll start with a few days before
labor started.

Thursday - daytime

I felt like the baby had dropped. I
suddenly had a lot of pressure in my pelvis and was needing to use the bathroom
way more often. Thursday afternoon I was feeling crampy but nothing
regular or more than a little uncomfortable.

Thursday night

I was crampy most of Thursday night
and woke up crampy several times (I wouldn't even call them "contractions"
because there was no rhyme or reason. I just felt generally crampy and blah).

Friday morning

By Friday morning all cramping had
stopped. I had absolutely no cramping Friday during the day.

Friday afternoon/evening

I spent the afternoon/evening updating my
blog at my mother-in-law's house (catching up before the baby came!). T
& I had dinner there then headed home in the evening, put Jack down to bed
and were going to have a date night in. We decided to play 18 holes of
frisbee golf on Wii Sports Resort. I sat on my exercise ball most of the
game telling Tom I was really going to try to break my water! I didn't haha.

Late Friday evening

After I BEAT Tom on frisbee golf we went
to bed. Before I fell asleep I started having more cramping. The cramps
started to get very uncomfortable and then so painful to the point that I was
shaking after the cramping had passed. I tried timing them but they
weren't at all regular. They were 10-15 minutes apart and I would have
one or two really bad ones and then minor cramping.

Super early Saturday morning (12am-3am)

They eventually faded away enough for me
to fall asleep (around 3am) but every time I woke up I was crampy. I was
SO annoying because I was getting up seriously every 15-30 minutes to use the
bathroom. I was SO exhausted and couldn't believe that I was never
getting more than 30 minutes of sleep at a time.

Saturday 6:30am

I finally fell asleep for a couple hours
without waking up to use the bathroom.

Saturday 8:30am

I got out of bed and went straight to the
bathroom and right before I peed I had a trickle of fluid just come out! I
wondered if my water had broken in the night but I was pretty sure I was just
having wishful thoughts. Then while I was waiting to get into the shower
I had another trickle of fluid! But it was seriously the smallest trickle ever
so I thought maybe I imagined it. While I was showering I thought I had a
few more leaks but it's hard to tell when you have water running all over you.
After getting out of the shower I laid down on the bed trying to figure
out if I really was leaking. Tom asked what I was doing and I told him I
was trying to figure out if my water broke. I was supposed to take him to
work (yes, he had to work on Saturday - lame!) so Jack & I could have the
car to run errands. But I was starting to feel a little worried that
maybe my water really did break and I wasn't sure I should leave him stranded
at work!

Saturday 9am

Decided to take T to work after all.
Jack & I stopped on the way home to get donuts for breakfast as a
special treat! - Jack loved it by the way.

Saturday 9:20am

I hadn't noticed any leaking in almost an
hour so I decided my water probably did not break. Right after I made this
decision I felt another leak! Went to the bathroom and smelled the leak
to see if I was peeing myself - ha! It smelled like bleach so I started
googling and found out that amniotic fluid smells like bleach! AH. I started to
believe maybe my water really DID break but I was still in doubt at the same
time. I called my mom and asked her opinion. Should I go in to L&D?
She thought I should go but agreed I could wait a few hours to see if
contractions started. I was still really unsure if I wanted to go in to
L&D because I did NOT want a false alarm! And seriously, my leaks
were so tiny it was barely noticeable! I still thought maybe I was making it up
in my head just because I so badly did not want to be overdue. I told my mom I
was going to get myself & Jack ready, run a few errands (order Jack's new
dresser from the furniture store + get gas), then come to her house and
we'd go to L&D if I was still leaking.

Saturday 9:30-10:30am

Did my hair & makeup, got Jack ready,
vacuumed, finished packing the hospital bag (toothbrush, makeup, etc), cleaned
up the house just in case!, packed pajamas for Jack in the diaper bag just in
case!

Saturday 10:30-11:00am

Tried to order Jack's dresser but the
furniture store was closed. Boo. Got gas.

11:00am

Got to my mom's house and she was all
ready to go to L&D but I was so not wanting to go! I hadn't leaked again
since 9:30 and I really didn't want to have a false alarm! So I put Jack down
for a nap at my parents', left him with my little brother, and went with my
parents to Costco & Walmart while they grocery shopped. Felt a few
cramps while we were out and when I decided maybe I really wasn't going to go
into L&D I leaked AGAIN. So it had only been like 5-6 leaks all morning and
I was just so worried they were going to tell me at L&D that my water did
not break ha! My mom kept saying "do you really think you are just walking
around peeing your pants?" MAYBE!

12:30pm

My parents dropped me back at their house
with Jack and they went to lunch with my little brother. I tried a little
"test" I read about online (I was googling my life away, by the way,
trying to figure out if my water really did break!) where you lay down for 30
minutes then get up. If you feel leaking when you get up your water might
have broken. If not, it probably did not.

1:00pm

Finish my test, stand up, nothing. But I
have to pee again so I go upstairs and as soon as I get to the top of the
stairs ANOTHER tiny leak! And then another one right before I peed. SO by this
point I had finally allowed myself to believe my water really DID break. Starting
to get excited and also nervous!

1:06pm

My mom & I head to the hospital. I
didn't want to go get T from work in case this was a false alarm. I
figured we'd arrange for someone to go get him if I was admitted.

PS If you are wondering how I know exact times
like this it's because I was texting my BFF Chelsy the whole day. She was
trying to convince me ALL morning/afternoon to go to L&D. She was convinced
it was broken from the first leak haha. If she and my mom weren't forcing me to
go to L&D I probably would have waited a lot longer!

1:30pm

Get to L&D, tell them I think my water
might have broken. They bring me to a triage room, undress from the waist down
and lay down on the bed for 10 minutes for any fluid to "pool." After
10 minutes they had me sit up and cough to see if fluid comes out. I barely had
to cough at all and a lot of fluid definitely came out! Not a LOT but more than
just a tiny trickle like had been happening all day.

PS Can I tell you how uncomfortable it is
to feel like you are peeing your pants all the time? Haha!

The nurse took a sample of the fluid to
test it under a microscope. They look for "ferning."

2:00pm

Nurse says they can't find anything under
the microscope so they need to swab again and send it down to the lab for a
test that takes 30-40 minutes but is very accurate. At this point I'm so
worried that this is going to be a false alarm! I'm freaking out because I'm
leaking constantly now and if it really isn't amniotic fluid then I'm just
going to keep peeing myself all day!? AHH.

Texted Tom to let him know I was being
admitted. His mom went to pick him up from work and they both were going to
meet us at the hospital. Also texted my SIL, Alyson, who was going to come take
birth story pictures for us! And then texted all my siblings. I was seriously
SO excited that I didn't have to be induced and baby decided to come on his
own!

3:00-3:30pm

Admitted, roomed, IV in, ultrasound done
to confirm baby is head down (he is), she also noticed he was facing sideways
which isn't really a big deal since he's not engaged so he can still flip to
face down. Nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 3.5.

3:45ish

Tom & my mother-in-law and my SIL
arrive at hospital. I'm laying on my side for 30 minutes as instructed by nurse
to try to get baby to move out of his sideways position. She kind of had me
worried that he was going to stay this way and they'd have to manually rotate
him but my mom kept telling me I really shouldn't worry about it so much as he
was still moving constantly...she was right BTW...it ended up not being an
issue at all.

4:00pm-5:30pm

Walked the halls, rocked in the rocking
chair, tried positions on the birthing ball to get contractions to start.
Nothing more than minor cramping...annoying! They told me they would
start Pitocin at 8:30pm (12 hours after my water broke. Although FYI 8:30am was
just a guess of when my membranes really ruptured since that's just when I woke
up and noticed the leaking. I think it broke a lot earlier in the night which
is why I was waking up every 15 minutes feeling like I needed to pee so badly!)
I really wanted them to just start the Pitocin already! I was bored and
so tired since I hadn't slept at all the night before. I ask if there's a
chance they can see if my bag of waters is still bulging and if so can they
break it? I'm pretty sure it's a high leak as I'm still barely leaking fluid. I
feel like once they break the water things will progress! I ask about this like
5 more times throughout the night/early morning but the nurses can't break it
and the doctor hasn't been in.

7:00pm

My new nurse told me that no amount of
walking the halls or different positions was going to determine if my
contractions started. Basically if they were going to start they'd start and if
not then not. HA. So I stopped trying and took her advice to just relax and
enjoy the time with my family before the Pitocin got started and the pain
kicked in. Jack Jack came to visit with my dad (who brought food for all my
guests who were SO patiently waiting with me haha!) Oh and my SIL Courtney had
joined us by this time!

8:30pm

Nurse came in and told me the on-call
doctor for my OB practice wanted the Pitocin to be started at 10pm. UGH.
Another hour and a half of WAITING! Oh by the way...I was having a lot of pain
because the baby was so low and every time he moved he would push against my
pelvis and give me the sharpest pains! I really just wanted him out!

10:00pm

FINALLY they start the Pitocin.

10:10pm

Nurse comes in and has to STOP the
Pitocin! WHAT. She needed two minutes of a baseline (resting) heart rate for
the baby before she could start the Pitocin and she realized she didn't have
two full minutes of a resting heart rate before she started. Night time
is baby's SUPER active time so it took an hour and a half for us to get justtwo minutesof a resting heart rate. I was
trying so hard to get the baby to calm down and finally after rocking for 10
minutes she was able to get the two minute baseline heart rate.

11:30pm

Pitocin started, round two.

SUNDAY(what! I was sure the baby would be here
before midnight - nope!) 12:50am

Pitocin is being turned up every 30
minutes as permitted. I'm up to a 5. The contractions are coming at regular
intervals (about 3-5 minutes apart) but not painful (I'm telling the nurse my
pain level is 3/10 at this point). At this point the Pitocin cannot be turned
up more since my contractions are coming so regularly. Unfortunately they're
not really getting painful but I am in pain from the baby's head in my pelvis
and the contractions are uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep.

5:00am

I'm completely exhausted at this point. No
sleep the night before and I've been up all night again. So has everyone else
in the room with me - I feel so bad for them! I really just want to sleep and
my contractions are a little more painful (maybe 4/10) so I'm considering
getting an epidural just so I can SLEEP. The nurse checks me and I'm only
at 4cm! I hadn't been checked since 3pm and was so disappointed to find out I
had only progressed half a centimeter! Since I wasn't considered in
"active labor" yet I was worried getting the epidural would slow
things down as I've heard that can happen. The nurse confirmed that could
happen and suggested I consider a walking epidural which lasts an hour and then
if I was still uncomfortable after that I could get the full epidural. I wasn't
sure what I wanted to do so she left the room for me to talk it out with my
family and decide. PS the nurse also confirmed my bag of waters is still
bulging. This is frustrating as I wish they would just completely rupture it
because I know it would get things going!

5:20am

I'm seriously so exhausted that I decide I
just want the walking epidural so I can rest. Plus my contractions are
getting slightly worse. The anesthesiologist comes in and starts the walking
epidural. By the time she comes my contractions have intensified even
more. Within 10 minutes I feel so much more relaxed and am able to rest some.

6:00am-ish

I'm feeling my contractions even with the
epidural so the nurse talks to the anesthesiologist to decide if they should
top it off or convert me to the full epidural. The anesthesiologist recommends
converting to the full epidural so he comes to administer the medicine.

6:15ish

I start to get SO itchy from the epidural. I feel like I have lice crawling under my skin...everywhere! Tom and my mom help scratch my back but nothing is relieving the itch and it's seriously my entire body. I honestly wanted to scream, I was going nuts! I asked the nurse if there was something she could give me to counteract the itching. She said there were two options: one was Benadryl which would make me sleepy. She never said the name of the other but it would make the epidural less effective. I knew I definitely didn't want anything that would make my epidural less effective and I also decided against the Benadryl as I didn't want to be sleepy when it came time to push. 5am-7am is all a little blurry for me but I guess the itching must have worn off after awhile because I wasn't itchy by the time I delivered.

7:20am

I'm feeling my contractions again in spite
of the epidural and tell my new nurse I'm uncomfortable. She wants to check me
first. I'm also starting to feel really nauseous. Nurse checks me and we are
ALL surprised to find out I'm at 9cm! What?! She says "wow, we are going
to have a baby! You are 9cm!" I'm feeling even more nauseous at this point
and don't even want to think about pushing. I ask the nurse for Zofran but she
has to run out to call the doctor. She comes back and says the doctor was
just leaving the parking lot to go deliver a baby at Mercy but she made him
turn around since I'm practically ready to push. I'm freaking out because I do
NOT want to push feeling so sick! Finally she administers my Zofran but the
doctor comes in and they're getting everything ready for delivery and I'm still
feeling so sick! All I can think is I do not want to deliver this baby right
now...I'm too sick!

7:30am

Finally the Zofran is kicking in. Someone
asks me if I still want to touch up my makeup before pushing. HAHA I told them
they had to remind me to do that before pushing so the pictures turned out good
hahaha! Since I'm feeling better I say YES and touch up my bronzer and lip
gloss. Seriously.

7:35ish am

The nurse has me do a practice push and I
don't think it's completely hit me yet that I'm about to deliver a baby. I'm so
exhausted from being up ALL night two nights in a row!

7:40ish am

I'm so afraid to push since I'm feeling my
contractions and know I'm going to feel him coming out. This happened with Jack
too (epidural wore off right at the end) and pushing him out was torture ha!
They make me push anyway.

7:46am

Three pushes and his head is out, one push
for the shoulders, and then he's OUT! I feel SO relieved to finally have him
here and have the long afternoon/night/day of labor and no sleep be over. They
put the baby on my chest and I'm SO happy to see him! I can't stop staring at
him and kissing his little head. I'm so, so happy he's here and he's mine! I
vaguely remember seeing T cut the cord but I'm too busy making googly eyes at
my baby to pay much attention to anything else around me.

I heard someone saying as he was coming
out "he's a good size baby!" and I thought "seriously, again!?"
I believed it because let me tell you I swear pushing him out was way more
painful than pushing Jack out but I think now that's just because he came so
fast and Jack's was a ridiculous two hours of pushing. Plus Tom and my mom are
reminding me maybe I just forgot because I was in a lot of pain pushing Jack
out too haha! Tom says it seemed like this one maybe did hurt more though
because I was crying which I wasn't doing when I delivered Jack. But the
pushing lasted a lot less time so I guess it's better to have more pain for 6
minutes than a little less pain for 2 hours? Haha. I just remember thinking as
I was pushing the baby out "I am NOT doing this again!" but I think I
thought that with Jack too ha!

Anyway, after some time of skin-to-skin
they weigh the baby and he is 8 pounds even! That is NOT big to me even though
it's bigger than average! Considering Jack was 9lb 1oz, an 8 pounder is little!

We are so, so happy to have Phillip join
our little family. He is such a sweet babe and we love him to pieces
already!

And just a quick history behind his
name.

Phillip Dale Wallace.

Around 21 weeks I decided I liked the name
Phillip. By 22 weeks I loved it and finally got up the nerve to bring it up to
T. I loved it so much at this point I didn't want to tell him and have him say
"no" like he does to practically every name! He said
"maybe" but it definitely wasn't a "yes." Over the next
several weeks I mentioned it a handful of times and it seemed like each time he
was agreeing to it more. I didn't mention it to anyone else and we kept getting
suggestions for other names. I was sure I wanted to name him Phillip but
since T hadn't agreed yet I was trying to keep an open mind! Around 25 weeks
T's dad actually suggested the name "Phil." He told me he had a new
name idea for me and I'm pretty sure I said something like "Oh, great.
Let's hear it."...since 99% of his name suggestions were obvious NO's
haha. He said "no it's a real one...Phil." So I said
"Or...Phillip?" and told him that Phillip was actually my #1 name and
I was just trying to convince Tom. Dad Wallace was the first person other than
T that I actually told the name to and I'm so happy I told him early since he
never got a chance to meet the little bugger! Anyway, Tom finally agreed to
Phillip 2-3 weeks before delivery but I still didn't really tell anyone because
I just don't like to hear other people's opinions on the name.

As for Phillip's middle name. I had told T
I was considering just not doing a middle name if we named him Phillip because
nothing seemed right. But T wanted to do a middle name so I kept thinking on
it. Then, in November, T's dad passed away and we both immediately wanted
to make the baby's middle name Dale after Tom's dad. I loved the way it
sounded with Phillip so I was sold on the whole name. Like I said, it
took Tom until 37ish weeks to finally verbally agree to the full name. I'm
seriously so in love with his name (and T is too, I promise) and it's so
perfect on him! And I love that he will carry around his grandpa's name even if
he never had a chance to meet him on Earth. I hope it will encourage him
to want to learn and know more about his grandpa.

4 comments

Love the story love the name. Phillip had actually been on or list for awhile.... We will see. My water has broken both times. Never ever just a trickle. The first time it happened I thought I had peed my pants and then there was more water and I said to Allen that is a lot of water! Both times I got to the hospital they wanted to check and make sure my water has really broke. I didn't know that for some women it might not come all at once.

Phillip would be a cute name with Leo & Lucy! I had read before that you could have a small leak but I never imagined it could be so small that you didn't even know if it broke for sure! Or that you could go more than an hour in between leaking ha!

I love this! Where did you deliver? Did you like your doctor? Maybe email me so I don't blow up your comment section. :) my email is nfoell18 at gmail dot com. I'm planning to deliver my baby in CA and need suggestions on Drs.

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